Geography

Uzbekistan is
situated in central Asia between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya Rivers, the
Aral Sea, and the slopes of the Tien Shan Mountains. It is bounded by
Kazakhstan in the north and northwest, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in the east
and southeast, Turkmenistan in the southwest, and Afghanistan in the south.
The republic also includes the Karakalpakstan Autonomous Republic, with its
capital, Nukus (1992 est. pop., 182,000). The country is about one-tenth
larger in area than the state of California.

Government

Republic; authoritarian presidential
rule.

History

The Uzbekistan
land was once part of the ancient Persian Empire and was later conquered by
Alexander the Great in the 4th century
B.C.
During the 8th century, the nomadic Turkic tribes living there were
converted to Islam by invading Arab forces who dominated the area. The
Mongols under Ghengis Khan took over the region from the Seljuk Turks in the
13th century, and it later became part of Tamerlane the Great's empire and
that of his successors until the 16th century. The Uzbeks invaded the
territory in the early 16th century and merged with the other inhabitants in
the area. Their empire broke up into separate Uzbek principalities, the
khanates of Khiva, Bukhara, and Kokand. These city-states resisted Russian
expansion into the area but were conquered by the Russian forces in the
mid-19th century.

The territory was made into the Uzbek Republic in
1924 and became the independent Uzbekistan Soviet Socialist Republic in
1925. Under Soviet rule, Uzbekistan concentrated on growing cotton with the
help of irrigation, mechanization, and chemical fertilizers and pesticides,
causing serious environmental damage.